10.31.2006

10.30.2006

The GRACE show and the Creative Research Laboratory shows featuring a mmap's little spell are now down, so I'll be adding to the site less frequently - probably a few times a week. Here's the past week's daily updates:

10.27.2006

J.T. wrote a few days ago about visiting his alma mater out in Kentucky and seeing the students work there which made him start wondering about artists who live away from art centers.

Despite living in various cities (Richmond, Austin, St. Louis, NYC and Albany) I now live in Charlottesville, 1 hour from a minor art center (Richmond) and 2.5 hours from a more major one, D.C. So can I really participate in the art world form here?

In one sense, no. I can't get to openings, I can't pal around with folks and I have to depend on the internet and magazines for a lot of info. This became really clear for me when I did got to D.C. and saw the Kehinde Wiley show a couple years ago. In Art in america and online his work looked really good, but in person it blew - good idea but just terribly executed. Without being there I wouldn't have been able to see that.

On the other hand, I CAN participate from here - mags help somewhat but the internet especially can keep one involved. I have internet art pals, some I make collaborations with from far away (hello and hello). And although there aren't hordes of art folks here, there are some - I think it helps that C'ville has the University of Virginia here and lots of money/horsey folk around. Thats another thing - these small places DO have good work happening and showing. (Hello and hello and hello...)

Without trying, I've even fooled people into thinking I lived in D.C. - a gallerist contacted me once and was surprised I lived so far off. There's a story about John Baldessari from when he was a baby artist - He lived in LA but flew in every month or so to NYC for openings. Many people he knew there thought he lived in NYC beause they'd see him around and it helped him to not get labelled a west coast artist. In a way living away can help - when I lived in NYC I was a dime-a-dozen and its easy for artists to just get lost there.

On J.T.'s post I would be disqualified because I have lived in big city centers, so maybe that has helped me to stay involved from way out here - and with a little princess to amuse, 2.5 hours IS way way away from D.C.

Tuesday, October 31 5-7 pm HEART OF DC -Opening ReceptionThe newly renovated John A Wilson Building - City Hall Art Collection includes 100 artists and 175 art works including six paintings by John M. Adams. Please RSVP to CAROLYN.PARKER@DC.GOV OR 202-724-2042.

New online gallery: Abstract Earth Gallery has a unique feature that allows the viewer to preview what a work would look like on a wall (allowing you to position the work). You can even upload pictures of your own wall to see what the work could look like in your home or office. You can see selected works here.

I found this quote: "The idea is more important than the object."- Damien Hirst

Then I found a far more important opinion.

"After abstract expressionism, a lot of artists haven't been trained to manipulate material. Instead, they've been taught that what they're supposed to manipulate is concepts or ideas. To me, this is absolutely responsible for a lot of weaknesses in artists' production at this point. I'm an advocate of a return to very fundamental, very basic studio practices, which means that you first spend a lot of your time trying to figure out what materials will do, and in the process of figuring that out, you figure out what to do with them. [...]

If my teacher Charles White said anything really important to me, it was that you have to worry about making the best paintings and the best drawings you can, and the ideas will take care of themselves. I believe that wholeheartedly. I don't think there's anything worse than having a good idea that's poorly realized. And if you hope to break through to something meaningful, in terms of the relationship between form and content, it's gotta come out of a more experimental approach to material - a more experimental practice. That way, you see the possibility in materials for constructing meaning. If you don't understand the capacity of materials to carry meaning - if you don't have a certain set of skills - you're limited in your range to simple expressions, rather than complex ideas. Because what you're simply doing is selecting from meanings that are already prescribed or described." - Kerry James Marshall

FOR MORE INFORMATION: contact Gallery Director Jade Walker, crlab@uts.cc.utexas.edu, or 512.322.2099. For information about the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, contact Carolyn Porter, carolynp@mail.utexas.edu, 512.471.3379.

All Together Now includes works that take a spirited and at times sarcastic look at the discussion of unity and conformity. This mischievous show features local artists Jennifer Chenoweth, Leona Scull-Hons, Carolyn Porter, and Candace Briceño as well as far away favorites such as Jonas Criscoe, Ruth Stanford, Matthew Langland, Heather Cook, Julie Weitz, Warren Craghead, and Terri Bright. Working through multiple medias and across the country these eleven artists investigate ideas of community, the process of art making, politics, and self-identity.

10.03.2006

I had been thinking about doing a project like a map's little spell for a long time - a way to bring together a lot of different pieces of my work in one place that can grow and change. The rough theme is, like the show at GRACE and most of my work for the past 15 years, the suburbs and the experience of living in them, and to that end I've set up the pages in a loose arrangement based on a house, it's lawn and the street around it. For AMLS I'm drawing on lots of old work (including comics, books, paintings) plus new stuff and remixing it for the web.

The front page is a night-time landscape that exists now in three forms - in AMLS, as a digital print and as a page in a story I made for an upcoming comics anthology. That's a good example of how I'm recycling and remixing images for the site.

I'm also continuing to update - here's yesterday's new page, and here's today's. Email me and I'll send you messages with the updates as they happen. I'll also be mentioning them here every so often and I'll be adding books I've done - four are on there right now, buried and linked in with the other work. Here's two: "thickets"(2003) is here and "page-a-day speedy" (1996) is here.

One last thing - AMLS is featured in my show at GRACE, but it'll also be in a show in Austin, Texas that opends this Friday - one I'll announce here tomorrow. So it'll be in two shows at the same time! The internet is magic!

10.02.2006

The show opening Friday night went great - lots of people, I sold a few things and I got to see a lot of old and new pals.

Thanks to all who came, esp. old pals M.G and R. + L.F. Super thanks to J.T.K. + B.L. and T.H. + G.S. who went out after with me (and bought dinner!). And as always, all thanks to A.W. + V.C-W. for making it possible.

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting more about the show, including about the artist showing with me Adam Grossi. And I'll be letting you know about the frequent updates to the online version of "a map's little spell" which went live on Friday, plus a few other crazy things happening.